1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for controlling an information device by using a web browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Web technologies have been used to enable remote access to Multi-functional Peripherals (MFPs) which are composite information devices. An MFP accessed from a remote location is connected through a network to user terminals directly operated by users. Information devices, such as a personal computer and smartphone, used as the user terminals are provided with a web browser.
The web browser of the user terminal obtains, from a server on the network, a web page for remote access to display the web page. The user performs input operation such as function selection or operation settings, so that the input information is informed to the server. The server then sends a content corresponding to the input operation to the web browser. Upon the receipt of the content, the web browser displays the same immediately. What is displayed changes appropriately depending on the operation. When the user performs operation for giving a command to execute a process, the server creates a job to cause the MFP to execute the process designated by the user and gives the job to the MFP, and then the MFP executes the job.
A technology has been employed in which a script to cause an MFP to execute a predetermined process is embedded in a web page for remote access (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-003833). According to the technology, when a user uses a user terminal to perform specific operation on a web browser, for example, operation of selecting a button associated with the script, the script is run, so that the user terminal instructs the MFP to execute the process.
Another technology has been proposed in which, while a job started based on a script is executed, receiving a command to cause screen transition given to a web browser by a user is limited (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-142608). According to the technology, it is possible to prevent a script from being lost due to the transition of a screen associated with the script to another screen, and thereby to prevent job control from being disabled.
In conventional technologies, although a user hopes completion of a process controlled by a script embedded in a web page, user's operation on a web browser is limited until execution of the script is finished. Stated differently, conventional technologies do not allow a user to perform operation for finishing the web browser itself and operation for causing transition from the web page to another web page. This is because such operation suspends the script.
For this reason, after giving a command to execute a certain process, the user cannot make settings for the next process and cannot give a command to execute the next process until the current process is completely finished.